Tomislav Vlasic's Scandal puts Medjugorje apparitions in the news along with issue of objective reporting

It's interesting how the Catholic media have handled recent word that the Vatican had accepted the laicization of a former Franciscan who served for several years (during the 1980s) at the reputed apparition site of Medjugorje in Bosnia-Hercegovina.

First there are the blogs and websites in favor of the apparitions. They either avoided much discussion of the issue, mentioned it briefly, or ignored it altogether.

This is understandable -- from good, well-intentioned people -- and it can be looked upon as the charitable thing to do. Spiritually, we are not to hover over gossip -- and this case was fraught, for sure, with gossip. But it is not necessarily the way the matter should be handled journalistically. We don't pretend, ourselves, to be neutral (until proven differently, we believe the apparitions), but we do seek to be objective, and Scripture tells us that the truth sets us free, and so the entire truth of a matter should be aired, at least in the press. The priest in question, Tomislav Vlašić, was associated with Medjugorje for a period and was found guilty of a scandalous relationship with a nun. He was also associated with a dubious visionary (not one of the Medjugorje ones) who traipsed upon the scene, as so many dubious seers have since the onset of the apparitions. There is no reason to hide this (nor any other Church scandal).